Boris goes straight for scraping 2nd London ‘bendy’ bus route

01 September 2009

A bendy bus on route 25 at Whitechapel... soon to vanish

By Mike Brooke

THE demise of London’s unpopular ‘bendy’ bus has gone a ‘fare stage’ further with its replacement this-morning on route 521.

The unwieldy articulated two-carriage vehicles which critics say are ‘unsuitable’ for London’s narrow, winding thoroughfares ran for the last time on the 521 service at midnight on Friday.

New, shorter single-deck buses take over this-morning on the service between London Bridge and Waterloo. The first left the depot at 6.30am.

They are also running every two or three minutes at peak times, instead of every four minutes.

It is the second route to scrap ‘bendys’ after the removal began on route 507.

Next on Boris Johnson’s ‘bendy’ hit list is the 38 in East London which heaves its way through Hackney and Dalston along the Balls Pond Road.

The 38 switches back to double-deckers later this year, after which there are just nine routes left to convert before the end of 2011.